NAIROBI, Kenya — Seventeen people, most of them pilgrims on the way to a prayer site, were killed in a road crash Saturday involving multiple vehicles on the highway to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

The incident in the Salama area happened after midnight when a truck driver tried and failed to overtake another truck. That caused a collision with vehicles including a van carrying pilgrims, according to local police.

The driver and 16 passengers, most of them women, in that van died at the scene, police said.

The pilgrims were going to a prayer site in Nakuru County, west of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, said Martin Kivuva, Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa.

The primate said in a statement that he and others were “saddened with lots of grief” over the deaths. “Let us pray for the repose of their souls as we pray for their families,” he said.

Road accidents are a problem across Africa. The accidents often are blamed on poorly maintained vehicles, excess speed and poor road conditions.